1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to signal tracking. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and apparatus for mitigating port swapping during signal tracking that utilizes a signal measurement to facilitate assignment of signals to consistent ports.
2. Description of the Related Art
Communication devices are often required to receive one or more wireless signals and assign the received signals to one or more ports for utilization by an operator or other device. For example, a cellular telephone network may include a collector element, such as an antenna, that receives a plurality of signals emitted from a plurality of cellular phones. The collector element is required to identify each signal and assign each signal to a port, such as a data path, computer-readable medium, or electrical connection, for propagation through the network. Similarly, radio systems are often required to receive a plurality of signals from a plurality of radios and assign each signal to a port for listening by an operator.
Due to the ever-increasing number of wireless communication devices, the limited and finite radio-frequency spectrum available for use, and various efficiency and security concerns, signals are often transmitted on the same frequency utilizing CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, etc, thereby further increasing the number and complexity of received signals.
Unfortunately, systems often assign signals to incorrect ports due to the substantial number of signals that must be received and the difficulty in identifying which signals should correspond to particular ports. Collector element and/or wireless communication device movement or and other dynamic signal characteristics further complicate the assignment of signals to ports.
To attempt to overcome these problems, systems often require communication devices to transmit identification information within or in combination with transmitted signals. Although transmitting identification information enables signals to be identified and assigned to correct ports, it increases the complexity of transmitting devices, requires transmitting devices to be compatible with the communications network by transmitting identification information in the correct format, and increases system complexity by requiring the system to continuously parse identification information from each signal. Thus, communications systems often remain inhibited by undesirable port swapping.